Crowd of Full Pockets

Movie and Music Analysis from One Lacking Any Credentials to Provide It

  • TV Season Review: “Game of Thrones” Season One

    The biggest problem with much high fantasy work is that it’s unoriginal. It often turns into nothing more than a blend of tropes borrowed from Tolkien and handed down through sources like Dungeons & Dragons, World of Warcraft, and other book series like Terry Pratchett’s Discworld and Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen. This…

  • Movie Review: “Smashed” (James Ponsoldt, USA 2012)

    Back in 1962, comic mastermind Blake Edwards made a rare foray into serious territory by making a 117-minute commercial for Alcoholics Anonymous in the film Days of Wine and Roses (USA). However, in spite of making a film that was essentially an infomercial, Edwards was able to make something compelling. How? He knew to draw…

  • Movie Review and Other Thoughts: “Vertigo” (Alfred Hitchcock, USA 1958)

    Sight & Sound, the world’s premier film journal, last year published the results of its once-per-decade Greatest Film of All-Time poll, which is the only such poll anyone actually cares about. While I was rather unsurprised to see it happen, the headline for most was the toppling of Citizen Kane as the top film, a…